Medical articles today

Smoking affects your cardiac health both before and after a major event like a heart attack. But how much? And does cutting back instead of quitting have a positive effect as well? There are definitive answers in a new study from Tel Aviv University, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind. The research found that quitting smoking after a heart attack has about the same positive effect as other major interventions such as lipid-lowering agents like statins or more invasive procedures. Study results were reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "It's really the most broad and eye-opening study of its kind, " says Dr.

In a major step toward commercialization of a promising therapeutic treatment, Oak Ridge National Laboratory contractor UT-Battelle has exclusively licensed patents on inventions based on the Nell-1 gene to NellOne Therapeutics, Inc. (NellOne), a company spun out of the Department of Energy laboratory. The protein therapy treatment under development takes advantage of the Nell-1 gene's cell-signaling pathway that controls tissue growth and maturation in mammalian organs. The foundation for this therapy is research performed by Cymbeline Culiat, who as an ORNL systems genetics researcher identified the role that the Nell-1 pathway plays in tissue growth and maturation.

Heart disease is the single leading cause of death for American women. Nearly twice as many women in the United States die of heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases than from all forms of cancer, including breast cancer. Dr. Karla Kurrelmeyer, a cardiologist at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston, focuses on research and treatment of women with heart disease. Kurrelmeyer is somewhat unique among practicing cardiologists, not only because her focus is on female heart health, but also because she is a woman. Less than 20 percent of cardiologists in the U.S. are women. American Heart Month, recognized in February by the American Heart Association, gives her an opportunity to share with women on a broader scale what she shares with her patients year round.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine category goes in this second edition to Prof. Robert J. Lefkowitz (1943, New York, United States), investigator in the Department of Medicine at Duke University (United States). The award was granted, in the words of the jury, "for his discoveries of the seven transmembrane receptors (G protein-coupled receptors), the largest, most versatile and most therapeutically accessible receptor signaling system, and of the general mechanism of their regulation". Lefkowitz is author of more than 850 research papers that at the time of writing have been cited on over 95, 000 occasions.

The American Heart Association's national Go Red for Women campaign encourages the public to wear red on Friday, Feb. 5, "National Wear Red Day, " and to show support in the fight against heart disease. This year's nationwide theme is "Our Hearts. Our Choice, " and suggests that women improve their heart health to live stronger, longer lives. The Alabama Department of Public Health and the American Heart Association's collaborative Go Red for Women events include outreach to special populations-Women's Health Information For the Incarcerated Initiative (WHI-FI), and faith-based outreach to African American and Hispanic/Latino communities throughout the state.

The 2010 Louis-Jeantet Prize For Medicine is awarded to the French cardiologist Michel Haissaguerre, professor of cardiology at the University Victor-Segalen Bordeaux 2 and head of the Department of Cardiac Arrhythmias of the University Hospital of Bordeaux, and to the British biologist Austin Smith, Medical Research Council professor at the Department of Biochemistry and director of the Welcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at Cambridge University. The Louis-Jeantet Foundation awards the sum of CHF 600'000 to each of the prize- winners for the continuation of their work, and CHF 100'000 for their personal use. The Foundation distinguishes this year not only a biologist whose fundamental research will have important repercussions in the field of medicine, but also and for the first time a doctor whose clinical research has revolutionised the treatment of cardiac rhythm disorders.